Best settings or method for recording laptop screen

M

magicant

Member
I am looking to use the Sony EX1R to record the video from a laptop screen. I know about computer video capture software, etc. but cannot use that. So I'm looking for the best settings to record the screen of a laptop.

I tried a few things quickly and this is what I found. Laptop refresh rate is 60hz (cannot be changed). I tried recording at 1920x1080 30P. With shutter speed of 1/60 there was a lot of flicker. I tried ECS but no change. Other shutter speeds didn't help much either. Putting shutter to AUTO almost reduced flicker completed.

2 problems I have:
1. Video was a little dim and washed out. Tried adjusting iris but didn't help much.
2. Laptop video had a very fine black grid over the screen (like a screen door). Looking close to the laptop I do not notice a grid pattern. Not sure why it is showing up on the video.

Any ideas for reducing flicker more, getting a brighter/sharper picture, and most importantly removing the grid?

Thank you.
 
Not the answer you are looking for but consider using CamStudio or Camtasia or maybe even Jing.
The Techsmith TSCC codec used in CamStudio or Camtasia is free on Windows and works great
on the timeline in Premiere and Vegas. If you are editing on Mac there's probably something similar
but you may need to re-compress the result to Prores.

This workflow will yield a much better result provided your laptop isn't showing a movie or video or a game
that is too hard for the TSCC codec to deal with. If you do need to record a
game or video playing on the screen, the Hauppage HD-PVR gaming edition product rocks at this...
 
I know but this is a work laptop and something I'm doing for my boss. Our IT will not install or use any recording software, and can't do this on personal laptop. So video recording is my only choice. If anyone has any tips for recording the screen I would appreciate it. But thank you for your response.
 
Try this

Try this

1. Darken the room. The lesser ambient light, the better color and contrast you get.
2. The pattern you notice is a moiré due to the pixelpatern of your screen and the pixelpatern of your camera sensor.
Try slight out of focus (manual focus, MF focus assist off). Try Flicker Reduce at different settings. Try slightly different angles between your screen and the cameralens. Try another distance between screen and cameralens and change the zoom accordingly. Try 720P, this softens the image a bit (the pickup is still 1080p, maybe it doesn't help). Try an to connect an external monitor to your laptop and point your camera to that (and start all over).

ECS lets you change the shutterspeed in small increments. Very effectve to reduce flicker, banding and 'running' on crt monitors.

What about an external hardware encoder like an Elgato video capture? (if the laptop has video out).

Hope one of these helps.
 
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I would add...shoot with neutral density filter in place. Not clear filter. Colors will be richer and more true.
 
Lensmith said:
I would add...shoot with neutral density filter in place. Not clear filter. Colors will be richer and more true.
Click to expand...

And why exactly do you think that?
"Neutral density" filters just reduce the amount of light coming into the camera and will have no effect at all on the "richness" or accuracy of the colors . . . otherwise it wouldn't be a NEUTRAL density filter.
 
Hi Doug,

Because the actual color temp of that screen is closer to 5600 rather than 3200 .

I've shot all kinds of computer screens for years. Never understood why folks don't realize the color temp of things they are shooting. But then again...I come from the world of remembering to white balance for every shot and not trusting auto settings...so I may just be more conscious of it.

Shooting on the clear filter many times comes from those automatically thinking they are inside a building with no sun. It also gives you less latitude with your exposure, thus no surprise when the image and colors end up looking more washed out. The darker neutral density filter helps bring out the richer colors because you have that extra latitude. Better exposure, better colors.

The sun is not the only light source which puts out 5600K...I know you know that, Doug...but others may not . ;)
 
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Hi John,

Sorry, but color temp has nothing at all do with this. Perhaps you have forgotten that the ND filters of the XDCAM EX camcorders are true ND filters with no color correction ability. The EX1R ain't no Betacam! :-)
So, the color temperature of the computer screen has nothing to do with whether ND filters are a good idea or not. As long as the exposure is correct, it won't make any difference to the richness or accuracy of the colors whether an ND filter is used or not. In fact, I would be surprised if the LCD screen puts out enough light to even make it possible to use an ND filter. But it doesn't matter anyway, because there would be no benefit.
If the ND filter helps get the exposure right, then use it, but don't expect the filter itself to make any difference in the color.
 
Hi Doug,

Maybe you're right and I'm still falling into Betacam mode when I shouldn't be. ;)
 
Thank you very much for all the suggestions. I changed the white balance to 5600 and that helped the colors look much better. I forgot about that. I've tried a few other settings, like flicker removal, etc. and got better results. Still have to fool around a little more. Will let you know how it goes.

Thank you.
 
Just for fun...I shot my laptop with my EX-3. When my color balance was set to 5600 colors looked better to me compared to when I had a 3200 color temp dialed in.

I still had plenty of room to play with exposure when using the first neutral density filter as opposed to the clear one. I guess it's just my preference and not a "must do" for the exposure side of the equation.

One of my pet peeves has always been seeing wide shots of rooms or offices and having everything else look color correct except for the television or computer screen in the frame which end up with a blueish, slightly washed out tint.

FWIW...Many times with computer screens I will pull up a blank page from a Word type program to use for white balance. It seems to get me the best color temp reading directly off the screen.

For television sets with normal programing I'm stuck with using my preset 5600K as a default. Shot a bunch of election coverage down here in Florida last week for a client at a watch party filled with tungsten light and with lots of TV screens scattered around. The wide shots weren't too bad but...noticeably prettier in the tight shots of the screens when I adjusted the color balance closer to daylight setting.
 
John,

We are in total agreement on the white balance issue. I have the same complaints about mis-matching color temperatures and use similar techniques for getting things looking correct on monitors.
I'll bet I do something you don't do. I carry a thumb drive with me with a bunch of generic JPEG bar graphs, charts, graphics etc. that I can plug into someone's computer and then call up a screen of my choosing. You don't want to be able to read what's on it, but you can get a sense for what is there and it looks better than an empty desktop with icons.
 
Brilliant Doug!

I'm going to "borrow" that idea from you...it makes so much sense!
You've put the bug in my head about making sure I don't automatically assume something about a technique just because it's what I used to do with a Betacam. Your patience and advice make me better at what I love to do. Not to mention your willingness to share ideas and help those of us who are earlier on the learning curve than yourself.

Want to make sure you know it's appreciated and not ignored, sir! ;)
 
It would also make sense to build in the color temp you desire into those screen images. That way you can offset the D65 color you are seeing from the monitor color and make it 3200k or whatever you're balancing to. Actually, it would make sense to make multiple sets of screen images with different color temps and load the one closest to the ambient room color temp.
 
To followup on Klaas' suggestion, if the moire is caused by the pixelpattern of your laptop monitor it's possible changing the screen resolution on the laptop might help.

To get better colour rendition, try adjusting your picture profile settings.
 
you do not need to install anything on the laptop, there is probably already a screen sharing utility (netmeeting on XP, terminal server on vista, win7).
Any IT has a way to do remote support, so just ask them.
So you just need to share the screen of this laptop on another PC and capture the remote window.
 
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